Robbie Swinnerton serves up morsels from the foodiest city on the planet

eel

11/09/2015

"Tradition looks quite different in Tokyo than, say, Kyoto. Concealed and evolving under constant layers of renewal and reinvention, you have to search it out. Where to start? Just head to the atmospheric nightlife district of Kagurazaka and make your way to Kohaku…"

Starting with this gorgeous opening dish — kegani (hairy crab) meat glazed with a viscous drape of yuzujelly and served on its beautiful speckled carapace…

Then, a couple of morsels of unagi eel, deep-fried with a dusting of kombu and star anise, served with new-season ginkgo nuts…

Owan: a clear broth of superb dashi, featuring a single large and remarkably tasty shinjo (dumpling) made from kinmedai (splendid alfonsino)…

One of the highlights – not necessarily to look at, but definitely to eat: a rich porridge of mochigome (sticky rice) cooked with suppon (softshell turtle) meat, burdock, ginger, shallots and garlic. Strong flavors for Japanese cuisine, but this was wonderfully invigorating food for the evening chill...

Aki-saba (autumn mackerel) that was marinated with vinegar for four days and lightly smoked over burning rice straw.

Charcoal-grilled nodoguro (seaperch), with a cube of pureed burdock…

Tartare of Tochigi beef, served with a quail's egg cooked in the onsen tamago style, sprinkled with shio-kombu (kombu "tapenade”) and shavings of Alba white truffle. The photo doesn't really do it justice – but this too was superb.

The focal point of the meal. Donabe-gohan, clay-pot rice cooked with madai (sea bream)…

He was brought over as part of the remarkable and groundbreaking series of events, called "In Cibo Veritas" ("in food there is truth"), organised by Bulgari Il Ristorante in Ginza, featuring some of Italy's finest contemporary chefs.

As in the previous dinners (this was the 3rd of the 7-part series), it was a collaboration with Bulgari's own in-house chef supreme, Luca Fantin. It was (needless to say) memorable!

Having tasted Massimo's cuisine in Modena a couple of years ago (my blog post is here…), I was eager to see which of those classics he was going to serve in Tokyo. I was also really looking forward to trying some new dishes — as well as discovering more of Luca's beautiful creations.

I'll put some longer descriptions up later. For now I'm going to let the images speak for themselves. Starting with these appetizers…

…including this amazing rose (made with slivers of beet and rose jelly), inside an actual red rose on the stem:

07/29/2014

Unagi eel, prepared in the traditional kabayaki style – broiled and basted with that delectable rich savory-sweet sauce, and served over rice. It's the taste of midsummer, the one food above all others that is supposed to get you through the long, punishing days of heat.

So what better time to celebrate this supreme summer specialty than the official "Unagi Day" – Doyo Ushi no Hi (the Day of the Ox in the Summer Mid-season)?

The image at the top is the official poster from the Unagi Association. Here (below) is it hanging outside an old favourite unagiya (Yoshino is not famous, not the best in town and only worth knowing if you're in the area) that still prepares the eel in the traditional way, over charcoal.

What, no photos of the food itself? Not this year, and especially not on this day of all days. The hype and hullaballoo about eating unagi in summer has driven the fish to the brink of extinction.

So I won't be joining the herd by actually ordering kabayaki today. But I've put up plenty of blog posts in years past. I shall feed my eyes on those and look forward to some future time when I know that unagi stocks have stabilised.

04/27/2014

It was the sign over the door that stopped me: two eels entwined around a bamboo skewer, housed in a quaint old-fashioned wooden frame complete with quaint gabled roof.

It was not just the logo design or the old-fashioned look: it was the fact that it was for a restaurant serving unagi kushiyaki – eel grilled and served on individual skewers – a style that is much more typical of Kansai than the Tokyo area.

But what made me really stop was the little huddle gathered around a plastic storage box placed on a chair on the pavement...

It seems like this restaurant not only serves unagi eel, they also raise them from scratch. At this stage the baby eels are known as shirasu unagi (glass eels). These ones in the video are just three weeks old. Apparently when they were bought (from a specialist dealer), they were about an inch long. So they're growing fast.

I was taken inside to look at some of last year's eel: these guys are a year old now, and will soon be ready for eating.

After all this show-and-tell, I couldn't walk away without trying the house speciality. The signature kushiyaki is only served in the evening, when the place turns into an izakaya, with good shochu, sake and even wine on the drinks menu.

At lunch time though they serve teishoku set meals. The most popular option is unatama-don — unagi and egg (tamago) donburi. It was as good and satisfying as it looks:

The name of this place is Shirayuki. It's little more than a hole in the wall, just a small counter and a couple of tables, and hardly worth heading out of your way to find. And there are certainly better unagiya in the Shintomi-cho area.

But if you can speak a little Japanese, you'll get a friendly welcome from the young staff...

11/29/2013

So what do you drink if you're thirsty after a visit to Japan's most sacred shrine? Shinto Beer, of course. That's just one of the excellent craft ales on offer from Isekadoya, a local brewery that has set up shop in the city that is best known for the magnificent Grand Shrine of Ise (aka Ise Jingu).

And thankfully, these beers are available at its outlet just a short walk from the entrance to the Naiku Shrine.

As specialist beer bars go, it must be the most atmospheric in all of Japan. It's actually not old at all, but it's been built – like the whole neighborhood outside the Naiku Shrine – to evoke the days of yore (the Edo Period some 200 years ago) when pilgrims used to descend on Ise from all over Japan, and this area was a hotbed of raunchiness.

I'd worked up a righteous thirst, so one beer was obviously not going to be enough. Plus I'm not down in that neck too often, so I needed to try as many brews as I could. So I started with the Sinto (ie Shinto) Beer along with a glass of the Kumano Kodo ale (on the right).

The former is fine for quenching the initial thirst. But the latter – named after the sacred pilgrimage route that leads through the mountains to Kumano – is far more satisfying as a beer: excellent flavor and body.

Among the snacks and foods served here, the deepfried unagi eel caught my eye. Forget fish and chips: this is what goes perfectly with Japanese beer!

Isekadoya also make a great porter. And a pretty adequate amber ale too (right photo).

The only thing wrong with this tavern — it's too classy to call it a pub or a bar — is that it closes early, like the rest of this tourist-oriented neighbourhood. In fact the whole area is just about deserted as soon as it gets dark.

No problem, really. The same beer is available in cans around town — including the train station, to help you on your travels…

I would never had found this Isekadoya outlet had I not had the brilliant Craft Beer Japan app on my iPhone. Highly recommended if you're travelling around this country with a thirst for good beer.